Skip to main content
DORAS
DCU Online Research Access Service
Login (DCU Staff Only)
The Victoria Institute, biblical criticism, and the fundamentals

Mathieson, Stuart Patrick ORCID: 0000-0002-0781-3747 (2021) The Victoria Institute, biblical criticism, and the fundamentals. Zygon, 56 (1). pp. 254-274. ISSN 0591-2385

Full text available as:

[img]
Preview
PDF - Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader
169kB

Abstract

The Victoria Institute was established in London in 1865. Although billed as an anti-evolutionary organization, and stridently anti-Darwinian in its rhetoric, it spent relatively little time debating the theory of natural selection. Instead, it served as a haven for a specific set of intellectual commitments. Most important among these was the Baconian scientific methodology, which prized empiricism and induction, and was suspicious of speculation. Darwin’s use of hypotheses meant that the Victoria Institute members were unconvinced that his work was truly scientific, but even more concerning for them was the specter of biblical criticism. This approach to biblical studies incorporated techniques from literary criticism, treating it as any other document. Since it also relied on hypotheses, the Victoria Institute members were similarly skeptical that biblical criticism was scientific, and spent much of their time attempting to refute it. In this way, they functioned as an incubator for the concerns that would animate the fundamentalist–modernist controversies of the early twentieth century.

Item Type:Article (Published)
Refereed:Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords:biblical criticism; evolution; fundamentalism; Ireland; philosophy of science; Victoria Institute
Subjects:Humanities > History
DCU Faculties and Centres:DCU Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Science > School of History and Geography
Publisher:Wiley
Official URL:https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/zygo.12676
Copyright Information:© 2021 The Author. Open Access ((CC-BY-4.0)
ID Code:26295
Deposited On:27 Sep 2021 11:37 by Vidatum Academic . Last Modified 29 Sep 2021 16:08

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

Archive Staff Only: edit this record

Altmetric
- Altmetric
+ Altmetric
  • Student Email
  • Staff Email
  • Student Apps
  • Staff Apps
  • Loop
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us